That’s what Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa told the audience at the 2018 Housing Summit yesterday in Auckland.

New Zealand is currently short of 71,000 homes – with 45,000 of those in Auckland, she says.

“New Zealand homes of the future could be a lot better than they are now,” she says.

And she says it’s society suffering, because poor housing conditions are having an impact on New Zealand’s most vulnerable.

New Zealand has the No 1 rate of homelessness in the developed world, she says.

And renting was the “long-term reality” for too many New Zealand families – about half.

“The challenges are huge,” she says, listing issues such as rental housing, poor-quality homes that are damp and cold, and house demand outstripping supply.

But there was not one “silver bullet” that would fix everything, she says.

Laws around housing were currently going under a huge reform in government, she says.

KiwiBuild, the government’s plan to build 100,000 affordable, quality homes over the next decade, is expected to make a big difference. The first 18 homes in Papakura, Auckland, are expected to be ready by August.

In March, the government bought land in Mt Albert, Auckland, where 3,000 to 4,000 homes will be built.

“We need to build more houses, but they need to be better quality.”

Last week, Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced that developers had sent in almost 100 proposals in response to the government’s KiwiBuild Buying off the Plans tender.

It was “overwhelming interest”, Salesa said yesterday.

First published 21 June, 2018

Story by Claire Connell

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